Happy New Year!!! ...still no baby Smit

Happy New Year!!!!!


Well there goes our tax deduction for the year!! :D Maybe Monday, until then I'll be spending the rest of the weekend working hard and moving heavy things.

P.S. Our Christmas cards came today...LOL! Nothing like the last minute!

Frohe Weihnachten!

I know it's a bit late to be wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, but Merry Christmas! Since our Christmas cards haven't arrived from the printer yet, they are now New Year's cards...maybe. Let's hope they make it through the APO system before 2010!

The girls and I are patiently waiting for Brian to get home. I can't wait to see what the girls do when he gets here. I'm not taking them to the airport with me. I can't believe how close we are to R&R!!! I also can't believe it's been 37 weeks and I'm going to be having a baby soon. Of course after tonight's battle with acid reflux from 1am to 5am - I'm sooo ready to be done. Everything else has been great, but when you start throwing up from acid reflux and can't breathe, it's time. Time to be done. This is only the second time this entire pregnancy I've actually thrown up - the first being what - 28 weeks - on my way to the airport for my flight to the states - Pepsi for the caffeine to wake me up and chocolate milk for the acid reflux afterwards did not mix well - life lesson learned!!!

Have a ever mentioned how much Kyla snores? My goodness she's loud!! It's pretty funny.

Our little porker...

Maybe Kyla is feeling left out, I dunno, but our noneater has been eating nonstop for the past few days. Her daddy needs to come home and take her for several nice LOOOOONG walks.

But this post isn't about Kyla - it's about the little one in my belly who this week is estimated at a whopping 6 and 1/2 lbs and 19.68 inches long. I was determined to have a 6 lb 3 oz baby - good thing these are just estimates! I will be cutting back on the Haribo gummy bears. Other than that, she still has a small head - thank goodness - still normal range and healthy as can be. Very camera shy these days, doesn't want her picture taken the last 3 ultrasounds, but she sat still for the entire heart monitoring today!!! Even the nurses were amazed. We go back next Wednesday to see Dr. Schwartz.

And since I mentioned the other two, I should mention Ginger too. She's great. She's my little cuddle bug and has been getting as much mommy attention as she can squeeze in before baby comes, usually in the form of resting her head on my belly to be scratched or head butting her little unborn sister.

Kyla.

Kyla got a little trip to the vet this past week and came home with a new necklace. We discovered a bump on her foot, the doctor said it's no big deal, but Kyla licks it so she has to wear a collar when I'm not around to yell at her. This is pretty easy because she's never more than 2ft from me at any given time.

bump after the vet visit:


Seriously mom, not cool. Isn't this thing suppose to be for Ginger?


On top of that - she got her nails clipped and the vet tech got one of her quicks. Which was NOT good, but we made it through and the little porker is 42lbs! 42!!!!

Schnee = German for snow

We didn't get hit like the east coast did, but it finally got below freezing, and WAAAAAY below freezing at that. I like freezing, freezing is good, the ground gets hard, my dogs don't have muddy paws and it's snows! But seriously a high of 9* and a low of 1* is not cool. Not cool at all, down right COLD! Pun intended! It's been snowing here all week, a little bit everyday, but not a lot has been sticking to the roads, well Friday night we got 3-4" and yesterday it was insanely cold, so I didn't go outside, I am amazed my dogs did. Ginger is a fair weather dog, she doesn't like it hot and doesn't like it cold either, but she's spent a good part of the last two days outside. Coming inside with a white face each time. Yesterday I ran out of apple juice. Oh dear. So today I shoveled, swept and salted the driveway and headed to the commissary with the girls.

Horses from my kitchen window, digging out some grass to munch on:


3 of our 5 apple trees and our cherry tree: (I did step on the porch to take this)


A view of our landlords farm and the town of Wiedersbach:



Salt is my friend and when the guy at 'self help' asked me if I wanted 2 buckets or 1, I should have said 2 - I'll go get some more tomorrow. :D

6 months, walks, baby update...the usual

My good friend Casey reminded me (and the rest of Charlie Co) that we're 6 months down! :D *happy dance*

The girls and I took a walk around our usual field today and I have to say it might be our last. From now on we might be driving up to that field and mommy might sit in the car while Ginger and Kyla do the lap.

I saw Dr. Schwartz today and he doesn't think it's a good idea to start acupuncture this week, it may speed up the process and we need someone to stay put for another 2 weeks. He said if she's not here by the time Brian comes home, I can start it. :) So we'll see. I was really looking forward to starting this week.

rain rain go away...come back as snow.

So far we've had a pretty mild winter here in Bavaria. 40s and 50s are the highs these days and we only had snow on the 15th of October. We have had LOTS of rain, not uncommon, just annoying. Especially when you have a dog who has panic attacks when it rains.

We had a nice visit with Dr. Neudeck today. Brya is still growing, but Dr. Neudeck did mention she has a small head - still in normal range - but a small head. I guess that's better than a big head, so I'm not complaining! Her weight is good, estimated at around 5lbs 3oz. I'm shooting for a 6lb 3oz baby. Something tells me we may hit 7lbs. We'll just have to see. I'm not getting much bigger, so things have become a little more uncomfortable, but no complaints for being almost 35 weeks. Brya didn't want her photo taken again this week, nor did she want to sit still for heart rate monitoring again this week. She is stubborn! You think I can convince her to hang out in there till the end of February? Having another Pisces around the house wouldn't be so bad :D

A Brian update and MORE!

I talked to Brian today after playing phone tag all day we finally got each other! woohoo! I love cell phones (even expensive as they may be)!! He landed at his new FOB today and will probably be there till after Christmas when he comes home for R&R in January. He's out there with some good people, but sadly none of his really close friends from the company. His crew chief is also into 4-wheeling, so at least he has someone to talk to about something. He's excited and happy about the move, there's a lot more room then there was at his old FOB and it looks like his internet and AFN situation is looking up. He also mentioned there is a nice American dining facility at his new home. I think he was getting a bit tired of the squid at the Italian DFAC. He's excited about tomorrow and Thanksgiving - to be able to watch football of course! He said there's plenty of wood - the Marines have been generous - but he's still waiting on his tools to arrive from Iraq. Hopefully they'll come soon. He did manage to build a table today. They are still in tents, but with lots more room. Even though Brian has moved, if anyone is sending packages, please continue to send them to the Shindand address! If you need that address email me at NicoleYatesSmit at Gmail . com

...And our hospital visit yesterday. One of the MANY wonderful things about the German healthcare system is you get to choose the hospital where you want to birth your baby. Choices are nice! Your OB doesn't deliver your baby (I'm OK with that) but a fantastic midwife does (and of course if need be a doctor can step in for C-sections etc). So yesterday Brya and I went to interview Neuendettelsau Krankenhaus. I had a feeling this is where I was going to deliver, but Frau Wagner sealed the deal and I go back to meet with her in a few weeks to do our paperwork then hopefully start my acupuncture there. There is also an acupuncturist at my normal doctors office, but I thought this would be a great way to start off at Neuendettelsau! They have awesome family rooms, so Brian, Brya and I all get to share a room (Brian even gets a bed and food!) They have wonderful birthing rooms - some of their options include a birthing stool, a table or a birthing tub. I'm shooting for the water birth, but at the same time keeping my options open.

We've started going every 2 weeks to see Dr. Schwartz and I head back to see him this Thursday. So far so good!

a few mama pics

I took some Christmas card photos for our friends the Smiths (Kyle, Erika and Cooper the super dog) and in return Erika (also a photographer) shot a few of me too. It was a somewhat sunny and 50* Sunday, so we went for it! I threw them in iPhoto and changed a few to grayscale, but a few could use a little more photoshopping with light, but I'm not too worried at this point.



The Smiths


Kyle and Cooper helping me walk a wall at the Lichtenau Castle. Kyle and Erika live in Lichtenau.



See I can JUMP!


Cooper wanted to be in all my photos, I think it was because I smelled like girl dog.

Happy Veterans Day Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines!!!!

I'm kinda partial to this one!

Oct 11-17th

Oct 11 - Kyla and the mole holes - our daily struggle.
"What are you talking about mom? I don't dig holes! I got dirty paws from... pulling up all those weeds...yeah pulling up weeds."



Oct 12 - A typical winter day in Bavaria
"Ohh the weather outside is frightful...but the rainbow kinda makes it delightful!"



Oct 13 -

Oh the joy! (Feel the sarcasm?)


Funny series of Oliver - he's a ham!!




Oct 14 - "ARRRGGGH MATIE"

Hey mom, I wanna be a pirate for Halloween, where's my patch?!
Kyla and her eye issues. More trips to our German vet than I like to count...and I thought all along Ginger was my "medically challenged" dog



Oct 15 - SNOW! Yes, Check the date, Oct. 15. SNOW!!


Oct 16 - Our awesome high chair from Auntie Blair and Uncle Jeff arrived today!
There are a lot of straps on this thing, I hope I put it together right!


Oct 17 - With love from Ireland. My friend Elena brought this back from Dublin over the weekend for little Brya.

Oct. 8-9-10 2009

I couldn't pick just ONE for Oct 9 - so there are 3. Oops! Since it's been icky and rainy here the past two days, lots of dog photos and one really funny cow photo. Sadly the 9th was the last day our cute and curious 'neighbors' were out to pasture. There is a road right behind our house, which is about 4 ft below our yard with a retaining wall. My landlord put the cows in the road for a day to 'eat down' the grass before it's back to the barn for the winter.

Today is cloudy and icky too, but the sun did pop out for about 8 minutes. It was beautiful! Looks like rain again, but we'll take advantage of it while we can and maybe I'll get some photos of the awesome fall leaves.

Oct 8 - Kyla and the tennis ball. After Oliver's obsession with the tennis ball Kyla had enough and destroyed it.



Oct 9 -

The 'bavarian beer' has seen better days.


Hello neighbor.


Sisters.


Oct 10 -

Piper, making his Smit blog debut

a photo a day.

I started taking a photo a day on October 1. Since we PCS next October I thought this would be a fun way to document our last year in Germany. Of course I was traveling home from Paris on the 5th and forgot to take a photo - so 5 days in, I seemed to have already failed at my mission, but I'll continue on for the fun of it.

I'll post Oct 1-4 in the Paris pics...until then

Oct 6 - my attempt at making homemade mac and cheese.



Oct 7 - My friend Pam's dog Oliver. He's the sweetest thing ever, in fact he was yawning in this photo, but he looks sooo mean and protective of his "bavarian beer" which I think it's hilarious he carries that beer everywhere!



Oliver and his brother Piper are hanging out with us for a few weeks while their mom Pam is in the states. I'll be meeting up with Pam in DC then we're traveling for a few days together before coming back to Germany.

Brian's new address.

I have Brian's new address. Please email me at nicoleyatessmit at gmail.com if you'd like it! :D Have a great weekend everyone!

Estella's 1st Birthday

I stole this photo off Makenzie's facebook page.

My cousin Daniel's little girl Estella turned the big 1 last week!

Happy Birthday, Estella!!

(and might I add - her favorite cousins Nicole and Brian gave her that adorable dress she is wearing!

*I think I'm in love now...love nooow*

Yes, I changed the words to the infamous 'Tiffany' song "I think we're alone now" but you can hum along to the tune and sing my new version as you look at these FANTASTIC new rugs by Amy Butler, by far my favorite fabric designer ever. I'm in L-O-V-E. I could put one in every room of my house. Amy's website.

Changes.

Life tends to throw us curveballs when we least expect them. Usually they are small ones, like an unexpected rain shower (how did I lose my umbrella AGAIN?!), a sick child (or dog!!), frogs in your house (at least they're cute), the barista who makes your latte wrong (wait...I am my own barista!). All things we adapt to and overcome everyday. The Army/Military in general loooove doing this. Changes at the last minute, changes after the fact, change change change....wait...where have I heard that word before??

Yesterday we got a HUGE curveball thrown at all of us - a big change in Brian's deployment and while we don't have a lot of details, please keep our family and friends in your prayers as we ALL make this transition to Afghanistan. As soon as I find out more information, I'll do my best to share without violating OPSEC (Operational Security). Hopefully I'll have a new address for Brian soon, but until then any packages can still be sent to his current APO address or to me and I will forward them to him once they get moved (it's free for me to mail things to him - it's considered APO to APO). If you need his address or our home address, feel free to email me: NicoleYatesSmit at gmail.com

Waving.

Our little lady waving to daddy (in the very beginning) before Dr. Bauman freezes it!

20 weeks 1 day.

I've gained 5.5 lbs since July 6th. I think that's pretty good since I've eaten myself out of one house and into another. Brya was fantastic, she passed all of her measurements and Dr. Bauman said she looked great! She didn't want to give us a whole lot of profile shots today, but we got a few good photos.

Udder Covers

MOOOOOOOO!! I feel like a cow cause I just ordered my udder cover!!! If you know someone who's pregnant (other than me) or maybe you're having a baby - either way - Udder Covers is having a great promo right now for a FREE COVER.

Go to Udder Covers pick your cover and type CHOICE2 in the promo code at check out and your cover will be FREE! You do have to pay $9 shipping, BUT well worth it! These make great shower gifts!!

Dad's visit to Germany #3 - Castles

Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle